


Katabasis

by aliceoutofreality



Category: The Mechanisms (Band), Ulysses Dies at Dawn (Album), Ulysses Dies at Dawn - The Mechanisms (Album)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, But there's no actual relationship there, Gen, The Mechanisms being the Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 09:26:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19315345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliceoutofreality/pseuds/aliceoutofreality
Summary: Marriage had never really been a consideration for Persephone but here she is, married to the new Hades with not so much as a by your leave. Turns out her new spouse is even more immortal than her, has mechanical lungs, and is a arsonist psychopathic space pirate who travels through time with their crew and cause chaos and mass destruction. Okay. She can work with that.A Mechanisms fanfiction based on the Ulysses Dies At Dawn album and the extra information on their website. A small crack idea about how the Persephone myth would turn out in that universe, and an excuse for writing morally grey characters. Warnings for: bad people doing fucked up things including mass murder, arson, and small mentions of incest and forced prostitution to fund a drug addiction. It’s the Mechanisms.





	Katabasis

Persephone lives a life that many would call “confined to a golden cage”. That’s the ‘benefit’ of being an Olympian. An endless youth leads to an endless line of parties and dresses and friends and boring, boring days. It’s awful. The city far below churns and grinds and she lives and lives and her mother indulges her and her family continues to be awful. They fight and steal and kill and cling to civility by the skin of their teeth and it’s so tedious and awful. Until one day something - someone? a group of someones - arrives in the city. The first murmurings are of a few someones causing a mass bar brawl that turns into a massacre. The next is when Dionysis introduces his new therapist, a strange man who calls himself a Baron and wears clothes of a type Persephone swears are several hundred centuries old. The final is when someone takes control of the Acheron, calling themselves Hades. The “actual fucking Acheron who the fuck would do that who the fuck has that much power how the fuck did this happen” Zeus rants and raves in a family meeting, throwing his pad against the wall. Persephone ducks her head and looks at her fingers and thinks about her plants at home until Zeus is saying her name and everything else is quiet.

Her head shoots up. Everyone is looking at her. Her mother looks terrified and worried and Persephone can’t help stuttering in the face of her uncle’s cold gaze. “Y-Yes Uncle? I’m sorry…” She doesn’t want to say ‘I wasn’t listening to you’ but it gets through and across the table Hera snorts. There’s a brief flash of anger across Zeus’ face but he tempers it, surprisingly. “What would you say about getting married?” Persephone blinks dumbly and thinks about what they were just talking about. Slowly she connects the dots. “To Hades?” Zeus nods, like nodding to a child, and Persephone just shrugs. She doesn’t know where it comes from. Marriage was not what she expected this morning but it sounds exciting. Marriage to a new God sounds exciting. More exciting than her golden cage and the same day in and out. She nods properly and there is a look of honest surprise on Zeus’ face. He claps his hands together and grins at her wide as a shark. “So, that’s settled. My sweet niece will be sent to Hades as a wife and hopefully we will be in their good books and we can continue on without too much trouble.” The rest of the Olympians are chattering and whispering and giving her approving glances or surprised ones and Hera nods demurely to her. Persephone feels like an adult all of a sudden. Zeus turns to leave and Demeter springs up to follow him, giving Persephone an incredulous look. “You can’t do this to her! She’s a child! You can’t just marry-” Zeus’ hand collides with her mother’s cheek and the room goes silent. Demeter doesn’t say a word, only cradles her cheek as Zeus moves past her and takes Persephone’s hands in his. His power is absolute. “I’m very proud of you Persephone my dear. You’re becoming a proper Olympian.” She nods shakily and tries not to hyperventilate. This is the closest he’s been to her in years. He’s terrifying. He moves away and Hera cups her face and smiles and then follows her husband. Other Olympians nod to her in passing, touch her shoulders or arms, murmur praise and reassurances, and then she’s alone with her mother who is looking at her with cold fury. Demeter leaves without a word and Persephone feels strangely proud. She’s been 19 for centuries. She has to grow up sometime.

As much as it’s her wedding, it doesn’t much concern her. Persephone stays in her room and looks at wedding gowns and talks about flowers and thinks about where she’s going to live, deep underground, and packs her plants up and tries to imagine what her new spouse will be like. Her mother and her uncle and her family arrange everything else. It turns out that there won’t be a wedding. Instead, she will simply go to live with Hades and then everything will be fine. Persephone suspects that none of them have actually confirmed the details with Hades themselves. So when the day comes and everything Persephone owns is packed up and put into a little shuttle it’s fair to say she’s more than a little nervous. Her mother hugs her tight and cries into her hair until she squirms away to save the nice makeup and hair job Hera had done for her, a nice treat considering hera hates her and her mother for the obvious reason. Zeus gives her a tight hug and as she is enveloped he whispers in her ear. “Don’t fuck this up. Don’t be stupid like your mother.” She looks him in the eye as she pulls away. Her mother thinks her a silly child. She is far more. “I’ll make you proud uncle.” She thinks she sees approval as he guides her to the shuttle but then he closes the door and the shuttle starts to move and she clutches her little purse with white knuckles. She can’t fuck this up. The shuttle takes her down through the upper city first, then the decent roads of the lower city, then the ground opens up and she’s in the undercity. Further and further down she goes, staring out at areas she’s never seen. She’d never truly understood the true scale of the city. Soon they’re truly underground, nothing but LEDs to light their way, and she feels herself wilting. What has she done? After hours of travel they pull up in front of a club, red and black and sleek. She is helped out by the driver and greeted by a curious bouncer who scans her wrist code and frowns. They make a call then signal for her to wait and disappear into the doors, music trickling out from the open door. A high, mournful voice singing about the city. Persephone clutches her bag and waits, chills creeping up her spine. What time is it here? Even with the fluorescents it’s so dark and so cold. Eventually the bouncer returns and guides her in without another word, something like a smile on their face. They weave her through the bar through crowds of people, past a band, up a set of winding stairs at the back, and behind a red door. They go down a long red corridor and knock on a final red door at the end. The cheers and raucous shouting from behind it stop and a smoky, smooth voice calls out “Enter.” Persephone can barely catch her breath before the bouncer opens the door and propels her in. She stumbles as she gets her bearings as the door shuts silently behind her.

It’s a cards room. A huge table in the middle, a strange assortment of people clustered around it. There’s a woman with what look like wings, talking to a woman with a book whilst a nymph with a moustache listens curiously. Two men with goggles are trying to outdrink a man with a wild look in his lightning scarred eyes. Persephone thinks she sees the Baron there, talking to a lady in a military coat and a ponytail who looks bored shitless by him. At the head of the table sits Hades. She’s seen that face on video calls with her uncle. They stare at her with a curious look, raising one eyebrow as they shuffle a pack of cards. “Yes? What do you want?” For a second, Persephone can’t speak. She remembers the wrath of Zeus. She straightens up and looks Hades dead in the eyes. “I’m Persephone?” She’s not sure if it’s a question but Hades still looks confused. The Baron makes a happy noise and gets up to greet her, effusing a near insincere joy at seeing her. “Persephone! Little darling, how are you? What brings you down here, so far from your mother’s cage?” He takes her hands and kisses it and she curtseys the way she’s been taught, and behind them she hears a few fed up groans. 

The Baron moves back to his seat, smug. He avoids the slap around the head that the woman with the ponytail moves to give him, and winks at Persephone. She knows that she blushes. From the head of the table Hades sighs, deep and long and tired. “Yes? You’re an Olympian, right? Zeus’...” “Niece.” The Baron fills in. Hades barely acknowledges him. “Why has Zeus sent his lovely niece all the way down here to see me?” After Persephone gets over the descriptor of “lovely”, she frowns. Oh dear. It hadn’t been confirmed. “I’m… Your wife?” Her words hang in the air like bricks. She seems to have almost stunned them all. The man with the scarred eyes starts to laugh like a maniac and Hade’s arms shoots out. They smash the man’s face into the table and he lifts a finger in a swear, still cackling. The rest of the table are watching as well, a few of the women with their heads in their hands, the Baron staring at her curiously. Hades slowly opens their mouth and speaks. “My wife? What the…” Realisation seems to hit them. “You cannot be serious. I thought that was a- Fuck.” Perspehone nods shyly, trying to ignore how intently some of them are staring at her now. Hades sighs, finally removing their hand from the scarred man’s neck. 

Persephone suddenly feels very, very small as the various people around the table assess her. Hades lifts their hands up in a placating manner. “I didn’t think he was serious.” The women with the book chips in, sarcasm colouring her voice. “So you just accidentally married a girl Ashes?” Hades glares at her and Persephone feels a chill up her spine. Ashes. Hades real name is Ashes. Hades scowls and looks at Persephone, at her pink dress and green hairpieces in this red underworld, and they point at the door. “Go home. I did not want this. Give my regards to your uncle and go.” They sit back down and focus on the cards, the others going back to their drinks and talks. Persephone cannot. She will not go home a failure. She will not suffer her uncle’s wrath. She walks over to the table and sits down in a chair. Slowly, the amused gazes of those around the table turn to her. “No.” Hades raises their head. Sighs. Places the cards deliberately down. “I’m sorry?” “No. I’m not leaving. I’m not going back to Zeus a failure.” The Baron nods in understanding. “She’s right Ashes. That man will kill her for failing. He kills his own children like they are little bugs. Almost admirable but still very messy.” Around the table eyebrows are raised but Hades continues to stare at Persephone. Out of the corner of her eye, the mustachioed nymph offers her a drink. It gets a scolding from Hades but she still takes it. She sculls it down, makes a face at the burn, and slams the glass back on the table to approval from the group. The scarred man nods. “You could do worse.” Hades slaps him round the head. “You won’t go? I will make you leave.” “I’m not going. You know what my uncle will do to me, to my mother. I am not going to leave. You’re married now, hi. Congratulations.” Hades sucks a breath in. “This is not… This is not how marriage works. You know that right?”

“I’m not a child.” The laughter from around the table is sarcastic, and Persephone bristles. “I’m not!” “You’re how old? 19?” The winged woman asks, hiding a snort in her drink. “I’m 233, actually.” That tempers them a little but one of the men with the goggles still laughs, counting drunkenly on his fingers. “Not too bad. Been up in your golden cage though, all your life. What makes you think you could cut it down here?” The woman with the ponytail asks, something like recognition in her eyes. Persephone knows she has an answer to that. “Because I’m an Olympian. My family is a family of near-immortal fucked up shits who murder people indiscriminately. This entire city is just a playground for murderers and monsters and I’ve lived amongst them for 233 years ” She has everyone’s attention, especially Hades. Slowly they put down their cards and look at her, and she knows they’re seeing her in a new light. She was right. She knows exactly who these people are. They’re the chaos makers. Looking for trouble, looking to destroy. She wants that.  
She looks Hades right in their eyes. “I don’t want to live up there anymore. I’ll do whatever you want but I want to live here. Not up there.” There’s a few giggles from the group but Hades keeps their eyes on her. They lay down their cards in a pattern she’s never seen before, and the scarred man drunkenly points at one. Hades doesn’t look away as they turn it over. Queen of Hearts. Hades frowns. “Okay. You,” they point to Persephone. “Leave the room. I need to talk with my crew.” The scarred man lifts his head, and as Persephone leaves the room she hears him say “Your crew? My crew you mean I’m the cap-” “Shut the fuck up Jonny.”

Persephone finds herself with her ear pressed against the door, trying to catch anything being said inside. The conversation swells in a raucous manner towards the end she catches snippets.

“She’s a child!”  
“233…”  
“Compared to any of us, that’s a child!”  
“She’s a posh little idiot.”  
“Like you when we met you Nastya?”  
“I will kill you Tim.”  
“She’s useful. Clever. Got that look about her. Not one of us, but she’s more than them.”  
“Something fun to play with Ashes? We don’t usually get to play with the mortals like this.”  
“She’s here now. Might as well see how useful she can be.”

Persephone has enough sense to dart backwards at the finality in Hades voice. The door swings open and the nymph is standing there, smiling very wide. “Please come in!” She follows it in, ready to fight to the death if Hades somehow decides to send her back by force. They are sitting at the head, shuffling cards as the other people - crew members - start to pack up. One by one they file out past Persephone, some ignoring her, some smiling, some giving her scrutinising looks. The scarred man, Jonny, slaps Ashes on the back and as he goes his eyes trace all over Persephone. It’s not perverted, more assessing, but she meets his eyes. In his eyes is the same maddened bloodlust as Zeus and it takes everything for Persephone not to flinch and look away. A smile quirks his lips and he closes the door with a slam as he leaves, leaving Persephone alone with her new partner.

A chair slides out next to Hades and Persephone takes the hint. Closer and closer she comes until she can see the now interested light in Hades eyes. She sits primly and tries not to feel terrified. This is the person who took control of the Acheron. Their friends have killed thousands of people, caused so much damage, hurt so many people. Something in her heart beats a little faster. She thinks it’s excitement. Hades sighs, and runs their hands through their hair, and looks at her expectantly. “I’m not happy about this, you know? But your uncle is right, this will help me work with him. I am not your… dream husband. I am not someone you want to be married to. I will not be your husband in anything more than name.” Something like relief loosens in Persephone’s chest. She’d never seen the point of uncle Dionysis’ drunken orgies, all that sex and those bodies. It was never for her. She shrugs, and they nod. “You know I’m not a good person, right? Those people are my crew, my family. We kill people. We cause chaos. It’s what we were made for and I won’t be here long, just passing through, having fun. Understand the cards you’re being dealt?” Persephone looks them in the eye. “The city I live in runs on the tortured half-living brains of the dead. My uncle has killed every single one of his bastard commoner children so far save one, and that one he arranged the death of his entire family to keep him in debt. I had 17 different nannies because my father kept sleeping with them and his wife kept killing them. Oh yeah, my father is my uncle and everyone knows it but we don’t talk about it. I’m 233 years old because my family sucks the life force from children and uses it to live longer and longer. The person that discovered it, they set him up to kill his own father and marry his own mother. They had children together. Then they set it up for everyone to find out. I haven’t once gone against anything they have done. I’m not a good person either.” It’s the longest bad thing about her family she’s ever said. Hades raises an eyebrow and for the first time since they met, Persephone sees a smirk on their face. “Well. Let’s take you home then.”

Their mouth twists at the word home, but they do offer their arm to Persephone as they lead her out of the room and to the upper levels of the club. The apartment is nice. There’s two layers to it: the bottom layer which is Hades business area and leads into Hades Acheron offices, and the upper part of it where they live. It’s a sleek fancy apartment, with huge bedrooms and offices and when the club is in full swing Persephone can hear the music through the floors and the vents. Hades likes the club, and Persephone likes it as well. It’s a fun place to hang out. Her bedroom is nice as well, pull of plants that she keeps in perfect condition. The business area is more… Business. It’s where people come to ask Hades for favours, for forgiveness, for aid. She likes to sit on the sidelines sometimes, watch her spouse work, watch how they weave their plans and schemes, how they make people indebted to them. Gods, the city is a desperate heaving mess. One day she sits in on a meeting Hades is having with a person: tall, dark, broken. Like so many of them. She doesn’t pay much attention to their begging, but Hades takes an interest in them. As they leave they give her a look that pierces to her soul. That night she finds Hades and she lies down beside them in their bed, just to be close to someone. Time carries steadily on. Her mother calls her. Zeus checks in occasionally. Persephone feels no need to return to the surface, to mingle with her family. She has far more interesting friends now. Hades friends, who call them Ashes, are a wild bunch. They all call themselves The Mechanisms, and Persephone suspects that’s not the name of their group. That’s what they are. Murders and thieves, vagabonds and outlaws. Machines and humans. Not even human anymore. Something new. Something awful. Something hideous. They are incredible to know. She slowly finds her way into the outskirts of their little group, as Ashes wife. They mostly allow it because it gives them a chance to mock Ashes mercilessly. Jonny d’Ville, first mate (captain) and psychopath who thinks nothing of killing 36 men in a bar brawl. He takes her on one, and when they stumble out to the street soaked in other people’s blood Persephone thinks she understands why the city is the way it is. Killing is so exhilarating. Drumbot Brian is a fun night out. Give him a plan and a justification for it and he takes her through three city districts in a hijacked shuttle. She sticks her head from the roof window and screams sheer bloody delight. Gunpowder Tim shows her the beauty of weapons, from the simple pistol all the way up to his favourites. She takes out one of her uncle’s smaller clubs with five barrels of explosives and a lighter Ashes lent her, and they watch as it burns with ash on their faces. The smell of gunpowder in Persephone’s clothes for days after. 

Raphaella is aloof but highly interested in Persephone’s mother’s business: poisons natural and unnatural. Persephone tells her everything she’s learnt at her mother’s side and lets Raphaella inject her with one of the scientists own concoctions. In the minutes before Ashes rescues her she writhes on the floor in blissful agony and she swears she sees and feels the entire universe through every nerve of her body that is on fire. Marius tends to her afterwards. He tells her everything going up in her family home, and she tells him everything about her life. He doesn’t even blink when she tells him about Zeus. He writes it all down and promises it’s for a good cause. She catches his talking to Ashes with the notebook out and she only grins. Nastya introduces her to the Aurora, their ship, her lover. She shows her around and Persephone looks at the way Nastya looks at the Aurora and feels overwhelmed. What a big thing. Nastya also teaches her how to sabotage any machinery she comes into contact with and how to hotwire shuttles. They go for drives around the city together. Ivy is always happy to learn. She picks Persephone’s brain when she hasn’t plugged herself straight into the Acheron like an addict with a needle. She hooks Persephone up once but it’s too much. Persephone wonders how empty Ivy’s mind has to be to keep all that information and not go crazy. The Toy Soldier, still a nymph, still mustachioed, shows her how to shoot like a soldier. It corrects her posture with an accent she’s never heard before, and offers her tea after every shot she gets right. One game night Jonny makes a joke about her and Ashes and Persephone doesn’t hesitate when she pulls the nice new sidearm ashes helped her buy. She shoots Jonny through the throat and stands over him with the barrel at his head when he regenerates and looks up at her with wild delighted eyes. The Mechanisms applaud and cheer and toast her, and Persephone has never felt so proud of herself. When he pulls himself up Jonny grins wide and pours her an extra shot. She feels like she belongs. Then she catches Ashes looking at her with a frown on their face and she remembers that no, she doesn’t. She’s a fun past time, an entertainment. They’ll move on soon. Whenever they’ve caused the havoc they want they’ll up and go and Persephone won’t go with them. It’s not her ship to travel on. She’s not a Mechanism. She’s only married to one. Ashes still takes care of her. They teach her everything they know about business and gambling and people and tell her that they know she will make the right decisions in the future. Tells her that something big is coming but she can be ready.

A few months later it’s her cousin Heracles begging her partner for aid. Cousin, brother, whatever. He doesn’t notice her, thankfully. He would probably try and kill her, just to get revenge on their father. Again, he wants his freedom. Again, her spouse offers a different plan. Someone out there has a job, and Ashes is slowly funnelling people their way. She sips her drink and wonders. Finally it is Orpheus who comes to Ashes. Persphone loves Orpheus, loves his music and his voice and she’d been so happy to see him happy with his fiancee and not trapped in Dionysus club sleeping with rich women for lotus petals. It’s so sad to see him like this: chewed up and spat out by the city. She knows what he asks for is not a good idea. To take someone out of the Acheron means they don’t come back right but the poor thing is so desperate she pleads with Ashes from across the bar. They send him away, to that Job they won’t talk about, and she smiles sweetly at him as he goes. A few weeks later Persephone wakes in the morning and the whole crew are in her kitchen talking. When she comes out they look at her with a wild hunger mirrored in every eye and Persephone knows something has happened. Something is going to happen. Something big. “You’re leaving.” She says to Ashes and Ashes nods. “What are you leaving behind?” Ashes tells her. Persephone doesn’t faint, although she does have to find a seat. She looks into the drink the Toy Soldier slides to her and knows that this is how it was always going to end. A city like this will only ever cannibalise itself. It just needs a little help. She finishes her drink in one and goes to pack up. She only takes what she can carry, what she can fit into the little shuttle that Nastya has adapted specially for her. Ashes hands her a chip and when she scans it she realises that it has every credit that has ever passed through the club. She gives them a smile and flips it just the way they taught her.

The Mechanisms leave one by one. Soon she’s alone with Ashes and she can’t stop the way she feels scared. Like a child again. Ashes puts their hands on her shoulders and from their waistcoat they pull out a lighter. “Burn the motherfuckers.” She nods and puts it in her pocket and then they leave and she’s alone in the apartment. They didn’t need to be so nice to her. Maybe they’ll come back some time, see how she’s climbed over the bodies they’ve left behind. She sits and waits and waits and waits and then the power goes out. It’s happened. Somewhere deep below, the Mechanisms have set fire to the Acheron. The city is burning from the inside. She grins. The screaming starts not soon afterwards, and she makes her way to the shuttle. She flies her way up through the city, retraces the steps she took so long ago. She bursts into the surface where she can already see riots forming. She finds her way up to her uncle’s penthouse and when she lands on the private shuttlepad she sees her family clustered around her uncle, terror on all of their faces, begging for information and reassurances. Everything is falling apart. How good that she’s learnt how to keep stable footing. All of them turn to watch her shuttle land, the only shuttle still flying. She opens the door and steps out, walks with all the confidence of someone who learnt how to fly from immortals. They watch her with open mouths as she pushes open the doors and walks through the parting crowd. Zeus hasn’t seen her yet and is ignoring Hera’s tugging on his suit, shouting at Dionysus about something or other, panic on his face. Persephone feels a thrill in her stomach. Her uncle had always prided himself on being hard to kill, but hard isn't impossible. He forgot that sometimes those closest to you are the most dangerous.

Persephone pulls out her gun and walks towards destiny.


End file.
